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Monday, December 21, 2015

H&R Block Budget Challenge #ad

“This is a sponsored post on behalf of We Are Teachers and H&R Block. I received compensation for this post, however all opinions stated are my own.”

Back in high school, I took a course called Business Math. This class was for students who were not excelling in Math, but still needed a math credit. We covered basic math a person would encounter during the course of their day or week. We balanced checkbooks, figured out the tip for meals, tax information, and other stuff that I use to this very day. As a high school teacher, I do not see many students taking classes like this and that could lead to a very serious issue once the students get out of school and need to figure out their finances. Taking high level math might be great for their problem solving skills, but basic real world math still has a place in schools. H&R Block has come up with a great program for teachers to use with their students to cover these important skills. The H&R Block Budget Challenge is a program designed to help students understand important issues regarding maintaining a budget. They also have a great set of lessons created by teachers that can be used in class. These lessons walk students through keeping a budget, reading a paycheck, understanding a 401(k), and so much more. These are important things all people need to know and these lessons will help guide students and teachers through the complex world of budgets.

Another great part of the H&R Block Budget Challenge is the fact that there are 3 Million dollars in grants and scholarships available to students and schools by participating in the challenge. There are 60 opportunities for classes to get up to 5K in grants, 132 chances for students to get 20K in scholarships, and a grand prize scholarship of 100K! As we push for higher standards for all of our students, I think it is important to remember that there are still some very basic things that our students need to learn. We take them for granted because we have been doing them ourselves for so long, but why should our students struggle to learn basic budget and money management because we can't find time in the school day to share it with them. With all of the debt they are probably going to rack up with college loans, this is more important than ever. Educators may visithrbds.orgto register their classrooms. Class creation closes one week prior to the simulation start date. and for this round the deadline to create your class is January 7th, with rolling deadlines up to February 4th. Here is a cool infographic worth sharing with all of you.